While rivals Manchester City are considering a move for former Liverpool assistant manager Pep Ljinders (with former player Kolo Touré also in the mix), the Reds also have a coaching role to fill.
Arne Slot’s second assistant coach for the 2024/25 season, John Heitinga, has returned to his former club Ajax as coach, with Marcel Keizer as his assistant. Heitinga takes over an Ajax side he briefly managed as interim coach at the end of the 2022/23 season. He had been an assistant coach to Keizer in the Ajax youth set-up back in 2016/17.
The 41-year-old Dutchman played for Ajax during his career between 2008 and 2011, playing 218 matches at centerback for the club. His departure from Liverpool means the Reds no longer have any former Evertonians on the sidelines.
For his part, Slot likely believes Ajax is correcting from their previous error, as he told Algemeen Dagblad last year:
“That Sven Mislintat did not choose Heitinga as head coach at the time – and that he left Ajax for that reason – Liverpool is now profiting from that. Apparently they did not realise in Amsterdam that they had an excellent coach in-house.”
While Slot would likely prefer to keep an assistant coach he so evidently values, the club will now seek to replace Heitinga ahead of the 2025/26 season.
Though it remains early days in the talent hunt, early reports suggest Liverpool might be eying a former player of their own: Football Insider suggests Dirk Kuyt might be tipped. Kuyt is currently in charge of Belgian second-tier side Beerschot, and led them to promotion back in 2023/24. His coaching career began in the Feyenoord U19 set up in 2018 before leaving in 2020. In 2022 Kuyt was given a head coaching position at ADO Den Haag in the Netherlands. Unfortunately for Kuyt, he only lasted 16 matches in this role, as he was fired with his club sitting 17th. A year later, Kuyt was appointed at Beerschot, where he has had much more success — though following their promotion, the side have subsequently finished at the bottom of the Belgian Pro League’s relegation group.
Other names that have been in the discussion include Marino Pušić, Slot’s former assistant at both AZ Alkmaar and Feyenoord. Pušić had been the head coach at Shakhtar Donetsk since 2023, but has left the club following the 2024/25 season. The 53-year-old guided Shakhtar to a league title — their 15th — in the 2023/24 season.
There have been obligatory shouts for the return of Steven Gerrard, though this suggestion feels less likely to stem from the cool heads in charge of the club.
It’s worth considering other former players who have their badges and some experience. The likes of Thiago and even Fernando Torres have been thrown in the ring, though both lack the experience that make this move likely. It’s worth saying that while James Milner is most likely to re-join Leeds United given his contract is up with Brighton, he might find himself wishing this vacancy at title-winning Liverpool came a bit later on in his coaching development. Liverpool (and Jürgen Klopp, specifically) has been supportive of Milner and other recent players in the process of achieving their coaching badges.